Things happen pretty fast in the Internet era, and the “old days” really aren’t that long ago. One of the things about the old days of the world wide web was interesting personal websites — constructions by just one person that could be deeply fascinating, and weren’t just links to three other giant websites.  One… Continue reading

If you like videogames, you’ll be happy to know that today, August 8, is Ken Kutaragi’s birthday; he’s 73. He was working for Sony in their digital research labs in 1989 when he noticed how much his daughter loved playing games on her Nintendo. He tried to get Sony interested in video games, but they… Continue reading

You’ve almost certainly heard of Kermit the Frog, the puppet from Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, and several feature films. But have you heard of Kermit Love, the puppet maker who worked with Jim Henson to create many of the puppets for those productions?  Love was born Kermit Ernest Hollingshead Love on August 7, 1916,… Continue reading

If you think about a Venn diagram where one circle is “people who use pencils,” another is “people with very nice luggage,” and a third is “nature documentary filmmakers,” right at the intersection you might find today, August 4. That’s because it’s the birthday of Nicolas-Jacques Conté (1755), John Venn (1834), Eugen Schuhmacher (1906), and… Continue reading

There are some odd things happening in the history of August 3 birthdays. First of all, yesterday the featured birthday was an inventor from the 1800s named Elisha. And guess what, another inventor from the 1800s named Elisha was born today; Elisha Otis. You’ve seen his name — he invented the Otis Elevator. But we’ve… Continue reading

Everybody knows that Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone — except that two years before Bell demonstrated his, Elisha Gray had a working prototype. The music synthesizer is usually attributed to Robert Moog, who showed his in 1964. But Elisha Gray demonstrated one in 1864. He also invented a version of the first fax machine… Continue reading

There’s a surprising birthday recorded on August 1: Claudius, the Roman Emperor (his full name was Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus). It’s surprising because Claudius was born in 10 BCE, and it’s extremely unusual to have a record of an individual’s birth from that long ago. The second reason why it’s surprising is that Claudius… Continue reading

You’ve heard of Amnesty International — its founder, Peter Benenson, was born July 31 in London. He was born Peter Solomon, but adopted his mother’s maiden name as an adult, following the dying wishes of his grandfather.  Benenson began his humanitarian work early; when he was 16 he created a relief fund for children orphaned… Continue reading

The deepest depths in the oceans and the people who try to visit them are in the news lately — and coincidentally, one of the first two people to visit the Challenger Deep (the deepest known spot on Earth) was born today in 1922: Jaques Piccard.  Piccard was born into an adventuring family; his father… Continue reading

Surely you’ve heard of Yahoo, whose birthday is today. No, I don’t mean the internet service; I mean Yahoo Serious, who turns 69 today. Yahoo Serious was born Greg Gomez Pead in Australia. After high school he enrolled in the National Art School in Sydney, but for undisclosetd reasons he was kicked out. After that… Continue reading